Posted
by
samzenpuson Friday June 04, 2010 @02:01PM
from the polly-want-a-gin-and-tonic dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Parrots intoxicated by a mystery substance are dropping out of the sky near Darwin, Australia. From the article: 'It seems that the birds get intoxicated by something they have eaten and it renders them unable to fly and function ... they can get very sick as a result.' Around eight to ten birds a day have been brought to the hospital after falling to the ground in backyards and along roadsides. A total of 40 lorikeets are now receiving treatment."

How the hell is that a troll you retarded fucking mods? Watch some Monty Python you uncultured twit. I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!

In my parents' yard, there used to be this berry bush. I can't tell you what it was, but the flowers were always pretty and the berries inedible (for humans) and sometimes the yard would have drunken birds from the overripe berries.

I guess a less funny response, is to point out that Lorikeets tend to enjoy a diet filled with fruits. Makes domesticated birds dangerous out to 5 paces. No surprise they are getting drunk from over-ripe fruits, this time of year.

"It happens every year around this season, they lose all balance and we find them fallen out of trees and the sky," she says. "Unless someone intervenes, they can't fly and will get picked up by predators."

Okay I get it. The problem is that people have been intervening so birds which should get killed by predators don't and the trait is passed on. Maybe we are breeding new species of animals which try to look cute so they will be picked up by animal hospitals and enrolled in breeding programs.

There was this story about two birds which hung around an electricity substation. The male bird settled on one bus bar and the female on the opposite polarity bus bar. The male reached across to give the female bird a peck and....

There was this story about two birds which hung around an electricity substation. The male bird settled on one bus bar and the female on the opposite polarity bus bar. The male reached across to give the female bird a peck and....

Avocados create around %10 D-mannoheptulose when they do photosynthesis.
I learned this studying plant tissue culture for Avocados around 30 years ago. This compound is a 7 carbon sugar that was said to cause instant diabetes in mammals although I think, not sure, now it is considered to simply metabolize much more slowly then glucose and fructose, the two sugars that make up common table sugar, sucrose.
In the avocado D-mannoheptulose metabolizes into perseitol, which is an alcohol, avocado fruit do not